Avinash Sable finishes 11th in men's 3000m steeplechase final

Paris: India's Avinash Sable failed to keep pace with the best in the business as he finished 11th in the Paris Olympics men's 3000m steeplechase final race here on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old Sable clocked 8 minutes 14.18 seconds while crossing the finish line after running in the lead briefly in the dramatic race. Sable had recently broken his own national record with a time of 8: 09.91 seconds at the Paris Diamond League.

He has been training abroad for a long time in preparation for the Paris Games on funding from the government.

Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco defended his title, clocking his season's best of 8:06.05 while Kenneth Rooks (8:06.41) of USA and Abraham Kibiwot (8:06.47) of Kenya took silver and bronze respectively.

World record holder Lamecha Girma of Ethiopia did not finish the race as he fell on the track towards the end.

Meanwhile, triple jumpers Praveen Chitravel and Abdulla Aboobacker failed to reach the finals after producing disappointing performances of 16.25m and 16.49m respectively.

Chitravel finished 27th and Abdulla ended up at 21st out of 32 competitors.

Chitravel holds the national record of 17.37m while Aboobacker has a personal best of 17.19m.

All athletes who jumped 17.10m or more, or the 12 best performers advanced to the final.